JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) -- The father of a 13-year-old boy charged in the recent
Joplin middle school shooting was arrested Thursday after being charged with
being a felon in possession of a gun, authorities said.

Federal agents said Gregory Lynn White, 44, was arrested without incident at
his Joplin home and taken before a federal magistrate in Springfield. White was
charged Wednesday with being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm, and
the complaint was unsealed Thursday, after his arrest.

White, who did not enter a plea, was released on $5,000 bond.

Police searched White's home Monday after the school shooting in which no
one was injured. They found five rifles, two shotguns and one pistol, said
Marino Vidoli, assistant special agent from the Kansas City office of the
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

"Mr. White has two felony convictions, one for burglary out of the state of
Florida and one for possession of a controlled substance out of the state of
California," Vidoli said.

He said federal law prohibits felons convicted of crimes punishable by more
than one year in prison from possessing firearms.

The 13-year-old boy, who was not named because of his age, faces three
felony counts of first-degree assault, armed criminal action and making
terrorist threats for the shooting Monday. According to court documents, the
boy told authorities the assault rifle he used belonged to White.

The maximum penalty under juvenile law would be incarceration in a state
juvenile facility until his 18th birthday, officials said.

Nobody was injured when the boy pointed an assault rifle at several
students, teachers and administrators Monday at Memorial Middle School. Police
said the boy, who was wearing a mask and a dark green trench coat, fired one
shot into a ceiling before his gun jammed. He was then talked into leaving the
building and police detained him outside.

The gun used in the shooting was a MAC 90 that police said was taken from
the parents' gun safe, apparently without their knowledge. The assault rifle, a
copy of the Russian-designed AK-47, is legal to own.

On Wednesday, the boy was charged with attempted escape for allegedly trying
to bolt down a hallway before a court hearing.

As I thought - it was an illegal firearm to begin with. And with a father like that, no wonder the kid is messed up all to hell.

Once again, more proof that it's not the guns, it's the people.

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I can agree with that to a point. Just because someone screwed up several years ago isn't reason enough to strip them of the rights that you and I enjoy for the rest of their lives. This guy should have kept a closer watch on his kid.

I can agree with that to a point. Just because someone screwed up several years ago isn't reason enough to strip them of the rights that you and I enjoy for the rest of their lives. This guy should have kept a closer watch on his kid.

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it's not so much that... it's that the gun was already illegal, so making it MORE illegal would have done nothing.